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Trivia: It was not originally in the script to have the players talk to each other about how hot the girls were at the Norway game. Before the scene was filmed, the actors were doing it for real while they were looking at the extras in the arena. The director then thought it would be a good idea to have them do that in the movie, to give their coach all the more reason to be infuriated.

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Factual error: After Baker scores the last-minute tying goal against Sweden, we see the opening of one of the ABC television broadcasts of the Olympics as it appeared in 1980. The specific arrangement of the Olympic Fanfare music we hear, however, did not exist until a few years later. It's an arrangement by John Williams that was made for the 1984 Olympics. The crash cymbals and chimes that accompany the opening tympani notes give it away.

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Factual error: At the start of the 2nd period, Al Michaels announces that the "Cone head" line is on the ice. In the actual game, it was the first line (Johnson/Silk/McClanahan) that started the 2nd period.

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Continuity mistake: At the skating pond, Herb's head is turned toward his wife as he says, "why can't we just leave it at that?" Right as he finishes that sentence, the camera cuts to a different angle and his head is instantaneously facing forward.

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Trivia: At the Christmas party we see that one of the players was given a toy helmet with a flashlight on it. The reason for that particular gag gift was that in one of the pre-Olympic games he accidentally bashed into another US player on the ice.

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Question: What would have been the tiebreaker in the medal round, if two teams ended up with the same amount of points?

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Factual error: In the movie, after the USSR's first goal, the announcer *correctly* announces that the goal was scored by Krutov, who deflected the puck in. In the actual game, she incorrectly announced that it was the player who made the initial slap-shot. (Later in the game, Al Michaels pointed out the correction while doing the play-by-play.).

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Trivia: The first scene that the hockey players shot with Kurt Russell was outside the bus, where four of the players tried to get Coach Brooks (Russell) to send Tim Harrer home. The director thought that since this would be the first time the boys interacted with Russell, there would be some genuine looks of awe and/or intimidation.

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Deliberate mistake: It wasn't Mike Eruzione shouting his own name that finally convinced coach Brooks to stop making the players do sprints. It was Mark Johnson, who smashed his stick against the glass in a fit of rage.

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Continuity mistake: During the series of sprints that the coach makes the players do after the game against Norway, the number of players on the ice changes. This is especially evident during the first one they do in the dark (only about 16 or 17 skaters are shown instead of the original 21).

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Factual error: The arena in the movie is way too small. The Olympic Ice Arena in Lake Placid had a capacity of about ten thousand, with an entire second level. The only "second level" the arena in the movie has is the small balcony at the end of the ice.

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Trivia: The arena used for the Norway game and the arena used for the Olympics were the same. The Norway game's scenes were shot first, then the arena's interior was given a brilliant paint job, then the rest of the movie was shot.

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Trivia: The actors were often anxious to play real hockey, so the producers let them play competitively for about ten minutes every day. The cameras recorded these pickup games, and footage of them was used in parts of the movie.

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Trivia: The movie mentions the Challenge Cup, where the Soviet national team defeated the NHL all-stars 6-0. Believe it or not, it was the Soviet backup goaltender (Vladimir Myshkin) who played in that game. No wonder coach Tikanov had no reservations about replacing starting goaltender Vladislav Tretjak with Myshkin after the first period vs. team USA.

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Factual error: Al Michaels never referred to the Harrington/Schneider/Pavelich line as the "Conehead" line when announcing the game on ABC.

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Trivia: During the final minutes of the big game, there is one shot in the movie where we see four US players skating backward into their own zone in an almost perfectly straight line. The exact same thing happened in the actual game. Bringing back four defenders forced the attacking USSR player to make a long shot from behind the blue line that Craig had no problem saving.

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Revealing mistake: If you watch Herb's wife Patty drink her hot chocolate, it is very easy to see that the cup is empty.

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Factual error: In the medal ceremony, the teams face one of the ends of the ice, not one of the sides.

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Factual error: The exhibition game at Madison Square Garden took place at 2:00pm, not at night as the outside shot of the arena depicts.

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Factual error: The Finland team's uniforms (in the gold medal-winning game vs. the USA) were not gray; they were white with blue trim.

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